Refineries are expanding at a rapid clip to soak up a wave of cheap crude unleashed by the U.S. shale boom, but their shortage of in-house construction experience puts projects at greater risk for cost overruns and delays, a new report finds.

More than 30 refining expansions worth $14 billion total have been proposed across the United States as the industry hustles to take advantage of the oil glut, according to an analysis by Petrochemical Update, which analyzes construction trends for the industry. Texas alone has 10 projects in various stages of development worth at least $2.6 billion, according to the white paper.

"Right now, there's a significant increase in investment that's stretching resources," said Ray Topping, director of Fiatech, a group focused on technological improvements for the capital projects industry.

Refineries and petrochemical companies have workers capable of managing big capital projects, but "there's a desire to expand at a greater rate than the in-house capacity that they have," said Topping, who did not work on the report.

The industry has less experience than it used to managing such massive investments, which can make it difficult for companies to accurately estimate how much a project will cost and how long it will take to build, the report said.

"The industry is suffering from a depleting resource pool of highly-experienced project managers and project support personnel," Stephen Cabano, president of Pathfinder, a project management consulting firm, said in the Petrochemical Update analysis.

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As experienced workers retire, they leave behind a younger workforce with less experience to manage a slate of projects that are more complex, costly and risky than they were a generation ago, said Richard Westney, founder and director of the Westney Group, which advises executives on managing mega-projects and not part of the report.

"This Great Crew Change definitely affects the ability of these companies to manage projects," he said. "If I'm an inexperienced person suddenly given responsibility for a major project that's far more complex and far more challenging than anything I've done before, I will no doubt make a number of unforced errors."

That's problematic because it's critical to fully understand the risks associated with an expansion to properly plan a budget and schedule.

For example, the flurry of new petrochemical and refining construction projects happening across the U.S. Gulf Coast has created stiff competition for skilled construction workers, materials and equipment, which in turn can drive up prices and delay projects, the report found. However, those problems may be easing amid falling oil prices, the Petrochemical Update paper said.

Companies can avoid cost overruns and delays by planning around these risks, but those skills are in short supply, the report found.

The ability to manage risks is often developed over time through "experience and lessons learned, both of which are weak in today's marketplace," Cabano wrote in the paper.